By Holly Cain

NASCAR Wire Service

RICHMOND, Va. – Austin Dillon claimed his sixth career NASCAR Cup Series race trophy, earned a 2025 Playoff bid and just as importantly, he enjoyed some sweet redemption in Saturday night’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.

Dillon led 107 laps on the night, including the final 49 to claim the victory and automatic berth in the 16-driver Playoff field – vaulting from a 25th place position in the championship standings before the green flag to a championship berth at the checkered flag in a clutch effort from the 2018 Daytona 500 winner and his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team.

It was the most laps Dillon had led all season and marks the third time he’s won a race in the closing weeks of the regular season.

It was a huge statement for Dillon, 35, who won this race last year, but was later ruled ineligible to participate in the Playoffs after receiving a penalty from NASCAR for aggressive driving in the final laps at the historic three-quarter mile Richmond track.

“Man, that feels good, got to thank the good Lord above,” said Dillon, who finished a healthy 2.471-seconds ahead of Playoff contender, Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman, who leaves Richmond now holding the last championship points position with one regular season race remaining next week at the always-unpredictable Daytona International Speedway.

“I really wanted that one,” Dillon said after an emotional hug from his brother Ty, who finished 18th on Saturday. “Last year hurt really bad just going through the whole process of it. But this one feels so sweet. Man, I love Richmond.

“God has timing. His timing is the best timing. … It’s just so special. Every one of these means so much to me. My grandfather [NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress], for all that he’s put up in believing in me, because there’s been a lot of ups and downs, could have been easy for him to change the drivers in this 3-car. Today it feels really darn good.”

While encouraged with his strong showing, the runner-up Bowman was also frustrated that lapped traffic in the closing laps impeded him from making more of a final run at Dillon. He now sits in the final Playoff transfer position by 29 points over Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Chris Buescher.

“A couple favors,” Bowman responded when asked what more he needed to be able to contend with Dillon. “I sure complained about it on the radio, but that’s just part of what we do, so…Vented a little bit, but had a really good Ally-48 [car] in the last run. Just broke the tires off too much in lap traffic. Didn’t get any breaks. That made me kind of work the rears harder than I need to.

“Just need to be a little better through there to get to him. I certainly think we had the better car. Unfortunately, didn’t get there. [Crew chief] Blake [Harris] and all the guys did a great job. Just came up a little bit short.”

Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron formally clinched the Regular Season Championship with his 12th-place finish – a huge upward swing in momentum considering he was collected in the race’s only major incident, a 10-car crash on lap 199 of the 200-lap race. He said his No. 24 Chevrolet suffered only some light splitter damage in the incident and was able to regain track position steadily through the night.

“We had honestly some really good runs tonight,” said Byron, who claimed his second consecutive Daytona 500 win in this year’s season-opener and has led the points standings for 20 of the first 25 weeks of the season.

“Feels great. Really the best 12th place finish I’ve ever had. We came. In here and just did a solid job. We qualified solid, but this is definitely our toughest race track. We had a solid plan and executed and it feels good. This team has worked hard.”

A Team Penske Ford Mustang trio rounded out the top-five finishing positions. Ryan Blaney, the 2023 series champion was third in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford – the first time in his stellar career he’s had a top-five run at Richmond. His teammate, reigning series champion Joey Logano turned in an impressive fourth-place finish in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford after starting last (38th) in the field. And Austin Cindric completed the impressive team effort in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford Mustang.

“I always look at different ways to get around here every time I come back,” Penske said of the Richmond oval. “I don’t think it’s a secret. I struggle really bad here. We work really hard to try to figure out how can we improve, like how can I improve, how can we work on the car to figure out what will mesh.

“Just a big effort by all the 12 boys, big group effort. Definitely think we’re creeping up on it. Hopefully we can keep going.”

Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez, Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry – a Penske partner team, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Brad Keselowski and the hometown favorite, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-10.

If there is no new winner at Daytona next week, both 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Bowman stand to transfer into the Playoffs on points. Reddick, who won the opening stage and led 41 laps early finished 34th, four laps down after his car was hit in tight racing. He is 15th in the Playoff standings, with a 60-point edge above the Playoff cutoff line while Bowman is 16th – 29 points to the good.

Reddick’s 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace, who won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway three weeks ago, led a race best 123 laps and won the second stage, but a pit road mishap derailed his run up front. He finished 28th, two laps down.

Byron’s Hendrick teammate Chase Elliott – Byron’s closest challenger for the Regular Season Championship title and the 15 Playoff bonus points payday – was involved in a 10-car accident mid-race and suffered his first DNF of the season.

“It’s just unfortunate, we had a good start to the race,” said Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “We kind of got on the wrong end there in the beginning and lost some track position. We got behind the No. 19 (Chase Briscoe) and got a penalty. I thought we were in a pretty good spot right there. We finally got on some better tires and we were making our way through there well, so I was excited to see where that was going to go, but unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance.”

The incident and Elliott’s 38th-place finish coupled with Byron’s 12th-place run sealed the title for Byron.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action next Saturday night under the lights at the iconic Daytona International Speedway in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 (7:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Harrison Burton is the defending race winner. Five of the last seven winners of this race were celebrating their first win of the year.

Photo Credit: Mitchell Richtmyre/TheFourthTurn.com